Tag Archives: Opera

So what is the big new deal with “The Tell-Tale Heart – a musicabre“? OK! Aright! I know you’ve been on tenterhooks! The suspense has been killing you! But only figuratively. Not literally, … Continue reading →

How a genre and boundary bursting Swedish movie brought back to mind a certain LGBTQ friendly First Grade Opera Tune I just saw the movie “Border”, Sweden’s entry for this year’s Foreign Film Oscar, and let me say, right … Continue reading →

Nude statues are all over Paris. I don’t know if statistically there are more nude statues there than in other European cultural capitals, or if the nude statues of Paris are particularly more sensual than elsewhere, or if it is … Continue reading →

Something’s coming… Something murderous, mad, musical… A pale blue eye… Cellos signing; moaning; screaming… His hideous heart… It’s all returning… But not the way it was… It will take on a whole … Continue reading →

Three first grade operas have performed in their classrooms in front of an audience of parents, grandparents and loved ones. In three consecutive days 1-3’s “Diamond Kids”, 1-2’s “The Alicorns” and 1-1’s “Imagine” regaled audiences with stories, dialog, lyrics and … Continue reading →

Sometimes I am asked, in applications for grants or music competitions for example, to write about myself. It is a certain special torture to have to act as your own greatest champion in writing (or in person), but that is … Continue reading →

The Unlikely Occurrence of Kindergartners Composing Two Soaring Love Songs (and Their Perfectly Rockin’ Antidote) Usually five year olds consider overt declarations of love yucky. So when kindergartners create their own original fairy tales operas, these don’t tend to end … Continue reading →

The Kindergarten K-2 class of the Brooklyn’s Children’s School just presented their original fairy tale opera, for which the children created the story, the lyrics and the melodies: Once upon a time there was a king, a princess and a … Continue reading →

Let’s have some fun with Beethoven! Specifically the 1st movement of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, easily the most famous piece of classical music in the world. The indelible Duh Duh Duh DAH motif that opens and shapes the movement may … Continue reading →

The on-line magazine AXS has published an interview with yours truly. The questions delve into the evolution of Speakeasy as well as musical influences in my childhood and advice to aspiring playwrights and composers. The article is excerpted below: Interview … Continue reading →

When all three first grade classes chose “Magic” as the theme for their original operas I worried that the three pieces would all end up being too similar. However, the three “Theme Sentences” (for 1-1: “Magic can control people’s minds”; … Continue reading →

It’s a whole new season of First Grade Operas at the Brooklyn Children’s School. The three first grade classes have all begun the process of creating their own original opera, or musical, with performances set for the end of March. … Continue reading →

I’ve discussed how certain characters are most likely to make the cut when the Kindergartners vote on their three chosen Fairy Tale Opera protagonists/antagonists. Dragons are extremely popular, being regularly featured, and populating two of the three Fairy Tale Operas … Continue reading →

Every year when I start the Fairy Tale Opera project in Kindergarten (at the Brooklyn Children’s School), I ask the class to make a long list of characters that appear in fairy tales. Then the kindergartners choose three characters around … Continue reading →

I have already written about how First Grade Operas are created by the students at the Brooklyn Children’s School, and posted one, two, three examples. If the First Grade Opera Project is the creating original music theater equivalent of riding … Continue reading →

Let’s have some fun with Beethoven! Specifically the 1st movement of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, easily the most famous piece of classical music in the world. The indelible Duh Duh Duh DAH motif that opens and shapes the movement may … Continue reading →